Harrisburg, PA – Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Thursday that he officially certified the final results of the 2023 Primary Election.
“All 67 counties finished their canvass and certified their results to me, and, after carefully reviewing and compiling the counties’ results, I have formally certified the outcome of the primary election,” Schmidt said. “Thank you to all county election officials, who not only worked hard on Primary Election Day to ensure a safe, secure, and fair election but also spent the last few weeks diligently verifying that all eligible votes were correctly counted.”
County election officials conduct two reviews to confirm the results accurately reflect the outcome of every contest, Schmidt explained.
Advertisement
“To ensure the results they certified to me were accurate, county election officials conducted a statutorily required 2% statistical recount and participated in the second statewide risk-limiting audit, or RLA,” said Schmidt. “Because of their efforts and hard work, Pennsylvanians can feel confident in the accuracy and integrity of the commonwealth’s electoral system.”
For the 2% statistical recount, each county reviews a random sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever number is fewer.
Officials from 14 different counties hand-tallied randomly selected ballot batches for the RLA. They then compared vote totals to the original machine counts in the Democratic primary race for Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Elections officials said that particular race was randomly selected for audit on May 22.
On May 25, the department livestreamed the process that allows for the random selection of ballot batches that are then audited. The RLA found no discrepancies between the hand tally and the machine count.
Advertisement
For more information on how Pennsylvania’s post-election audits help ensure the accuracy and integrity of our elections, visit vote.pa.gov
Christmas decorations bring holiday vibes to the Beaver Valley Mall
Christmas trees and holiday displays bring a splash of color to the halls of the Beaver Valley Mall.
The Christmas holiday weekend is now just days away, and you’ll need to know what will be open and closed in Pennsylvania so you can properly navigate the holidays.
Here’s your Christmas roundup.
Advertisement
Christmas Day 2024 is on Wednesday and considered a federal holiday, so most regular business will be impacted.
Major banks will be closed on Christmas
The major banks — Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, PNC, Wells Fargo and Truist — consider Christmas to be a bank holiday, and will be closed.
Will federal courts be open on Christmas?
All federal and Pennsylvania state courts and non-essential services will be closed on December 25.
Advertisement
Mail, packages won’t be delivered on Christmas Day
FedEx will be closed on Christmas Day, and will not deliver any packages.
All United States Postal Service locations will be closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Regular post office hours and mail delivery will resume on the Thursday following each holiday.
UPS will be closed on Christmas as well, and will not deliver any packages.
Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region.
I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.
Advertisement
Courtesy: Pa. Department of Environmental Protection
Eastern hellbenders are indicators of good water quality.
Advertisement
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing new protections for the eastern hellbender five years after denying endangered status for the state’s official amphibian.
“This is definitely a massive win for the species, for the habitats and the areas in which they thrive,” said Ted Evgeniadis, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper.
Evgeniadis’s organization, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and others, sued in 2021 over Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2019 determination that the eastern hellbender did not warrant protection. Last year a federal judge vacated the 2019 decision and ordered a new finding.
The eastern hellbender – which can grow to be 29 inches long and live up to 30 years – breathes through its skin, and needs cool, clean water to thrive. Its population has been shrinking, due to stream sedimentation, poor water quality, disease, habitat loss and collection for use as a pet, according to FWS.
Advertisement
The Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association said extreme storms due to climate change are also devastating hellbender populations. In a statement on the proposed listing, it said, “Hurricane Helene destroyed the healthiest part of their range in North Carolina, and forest damage and contamination from the storm will continue to pollute these areas.”
Less than 60% of documented hellbender populations still exist. Of those, only 12% are stable and 59% are in decline, according to FWS. Eastern hellbenders historically were found across Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The Ozark hellbender, a separate subspecies that’s found in Missouri and Arkansas, was listed as an endangered species in 2011.
The federal Endangered Species Act prohibits harming, harassing or killing a species listed as endangered.
Advertisement
That creates restrictions for developers who want to build in an area where the hellbender lives.
Whether it’s a gas station, a shopping center, or a housing development, Evgeniadis said, “it makes it much more difficult [to get permits], because earth disturbing activities are going to affect critical water resource areas.”
Evgeniadis noted there are risks for environmental protections under incoming president Donald Trump. In his first administration, Trump rolled back 125 environmental safeguards, according to tracking by the Washington Post.
“It’s yet to be seen what could potentially happen,” Evgeniadis said. “Some of the rollbacks that we saw were pretty much unprecedented rollbacks.”
Evgeniadis said he hopes the proposal leads to more federal and state resources going to help protect and restore the hellbender population and habitat in Pennsylvania.
Advertisement
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed listing is subject to a 60-day public comment period, which closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on Feb. 11, 2025. To comment on the proposed listing, people can go to regulations.gov, search for docket number FWS-R3-ES-2024-0152, then click “comment.”
Written comments can also be mailed to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R3-ES-2024-0152, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
Want a say in the news? Email Claudia at todayinpa@pennlive.com to have your thoughts on the stories covered here or on PennLive heard.
You can listen to the latest episode of “Today in Pa” on any of your favorite apps including Alexa, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and YouTube. Episodes are available every weekday on PennLive. Feel free to subscribe, follow or rate “Today in Pa.” as you see fit!
Retail theft is still increasing in Pennsylvania. By the way, here’s an update on those “murder hornets.” Winter officially starts this weekend. Finally, if you’re looking for love in all the wrong places, try one of these “right” ones.
Advertisement
Those are the stories we cover in the latest episode of “Today in Pa.,” a daily weekday podcast from PennLive.com and hosted by Claudia Dimuro. “Today in Pa.” is dedicated to sharing the most important and interesting stories pertaining to Pennsylvania that lets you know, indeed, what’s happening today in Pa.
Today’s episode refers to the following articles:
If you enjoy “Today in Pa.,” consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Amazon. Reviews help others find the show and, besides, we’d like to know what you think about the program, too.
As sponsored by Renewal by Anderson of Central PA.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25782636/247422_ChatGPT_anniversary_CVirginia.jpg "Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25789444/1258459915.jpg "OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25546252/STK169_Mark_Zuckerburg_CVIRGINIA_D.jpg "Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23951353/STK043_VRG_Illo_N_Barclay_3_Meta.jpg "Meta’s Instagram boss: who posted something matters more in the AI age")